1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to an image processing apparatus including a line recording head staying in the same position when ejecting fluid droplets to form an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile apparatus, a copy machine, and a complex machine, there is known an inkjet recording device employing a liquid ejection recording method using a recording head ejecting droplets of recording fluid. In the liquid ejection recording method used in an image forming apparatus, recording fluid such as an ink droplet is ejected onto a sheet being conveyed (Note: the term a “sheet” is not limited to a “paper” but may include any medium such as an OHP sheet to which fluid such as an ink droplet can be attached; and the term “sheet” may be called “medium to be recorded”, “recording medium”, “recording paper”, “recording sheet”, and the like.) for forming an image on the sheet (Note: regarding the term “forming”, terms “recording”, “typing”, “imaging”, and “printing” may be used as synonyms). As the image forming apparatus employing the liquid ejection recording method, there are a serial-type image forming apparatus having a recording head moving in the main scanning direction and ejecting fluid droplets to form an image, and a line-type image recording apparatus having a recording head ejecting fluid droplets to form an image without substantially moving the position of the recording head relative to the apparatus main body.
As one of the line-type image recording apparatuses, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-142365, discloses an apparatus in which a head unit including an inkjet head is removably mounted on a main body of the apparatus so that the head unit can be extracted from the main body. Further, a recording device maintenance kit for maintaining and recovering (restoring) the functions of the head unit is removably mounted on the extractable head unit.
Further, according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-123301, an apparatus includes a supporting axle supporting plural recording heads ejecting ink droplets onto a recording medium; a head moving mechanism rotating the recording heads so as to move between an image recording area and an evacuating area other than the image recording area; and a nozzle recovering unit performing a nozzle recovering operation for at least one of the recording heads in the evacuating area while one of the recording heads is forming an image in the image recording area.
Still further, according to Japanese Patent Application Publication NO. 2000-263801, an apparatus includes a capping and wiping member integrally having a capping part disposed so as to cap a surface on which nozzles of a recording head are formed; a cleaning part disposed so as to wipe a conveying surface of a conveying unit; and a positioning mechanism section positioning the capping and wiping member at a first position between the surface and the conveying unit and at a second position as a waiting position separated from the first position.
Still further, according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H04-16344, an apparatus includes a supporting member having a supporting unit to which a line recording head section is removably attached; and a guiding unit moving the guide member to a capping position to cap the recording head section, a recording position, and a maintenance position.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-123203 and 2005-178246 disclose each apparatus in this technical field.
However, generally, a line recording head is equipped with more nozzles than any other shorter recording head. Because of this feature, unfortunately, a line recording head is more likely to cause mal-ejection such as curved ejection in which ejected droplets are curved and the inability to eject ink droplets in a worst case. To solve the problem, a maintaining and recovering mechanism (unit or device) is usually provided in the apparatus to maintain and recover the functions of nozzles. However, even with such a maintaining and recovering mechanism, it is still difficult to always keep the nozzles in a normal ejecting condition. Therefore, the recording head of the apparatus should be replaceable.
However, during the replacement of a line recording head, there is a problem that recording fluid (hereinafter simply referred to as “ink”) stored in the head may leak from the nozzles of the line recording head, thereby contaminating the inside of the apparatus.